European Commission Sets Goal to Slash Train Times Across the Continent

[marmar]

(Bloomberg CityLab) A new high-speed rail plan from the European Commission aims to slash journey times across Europe over the next few decades. The plan announced Wednesday set a goal that all major hubs in the European Union be linked by train services running at least 200 kilometers per hour (125 miles per hour) by 2040, with many services surpassing 250 kph (155 mph).

If fully realized, the time savings offered by this upgrade and expansion would be spectacular: Trains from Berlin to Copenhagen would take four hours instead of the current seven, journey times between Warsaw and Vienna would fall to four hours and 15 minutes instead of the current seven and a half hours, while travel times between Madrid and Lisbon would drop by two-thirds, to three hours from the current nine.

In some cases, the higher speed train routes would be not just faster but entirely new — Greece’s currently closed rail connection to Bulgaria would be reopened and improved, allowing travel from Athens to Sofia in six hours, as opposed to more than 13 hours currently by train and bus.

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Achieving these goals will be complex and expensive, and simply adopting them as targets does not guarantee their realization. The commission estimates that €345 billion ($397 billion) of investment will be needed by 2040. Tripling the current number of routes running at 250 kph or more by 2050, meanwhile, would costs €540 billion. While some of this funding would come from commission coffers — funds allocated so far would cover roughly 10% of the cost — most would come from other sources, such as national governments and train companies. .................(more)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-06/europe-has-a-plan-to-slash-train-travel-times-by-2040?srnd=phx-citylab

[Clouds Passing]

1. We could have high speed trains here, but the billionaires need more.